1993 World Trade Center bombing | |
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Part of Terrorism in the United States | |
Underground damage after the bombing
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Location | World Trade Center, New York City, New York, U.S. |
Coordinates | 40°42′41″N 74°00′43″W / 40.711452°N 74.011919°WCoordinates: 40°42′41″N 74°00′43″W / 40.711452°N 74.011919°W |
Date | February 26, 1993 12:17:37 p.m. (UTC-05:00) |
Target | World Trade Center |
Attack type
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Truck bombing, mass murder |
Deaths | 6 |
Non-fatal injuries
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1,042 |
Assailants | Ramzi Yousef, Eyad Ismoil, and co-conspirators |
Motive | Islamic fundamentalism, American foreign policy, U.S. support for Israel |
The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, carried out on February 26, 1993, when a truck bomb detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,336 pounds (606 kg) urea nitrate–hydrogen gas enhanced device was intended to send the North Tower (Tower 1) crashing into the South Tower (Tower 2), bringing both towers down and killing tens of thousands of people. It failed to do so but killed six people and injured over a thousand.
The attack was planned by a group of terrorists including Ramzi Yousef, Mahmud Abouhalima, Mohammad Salameh, Nidal A. Ayyad, Abdul Rahman Yasin, and Ahmed Ajaj. They received financing from Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, Yousef's uncle. In March 1994, four men were convicted of carrying out the bombing: Abouhalima, Ajaj, Ayyad, and Salameh. The charges included conspiracy, explosive destruction of property, and interstate transportation of explosives. In November 1997, two more were convicted: Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind behind the bombings, and Eyad Ismoil, who drove the truck carrying the bomb.
Ramzi Yousef, who was born as Abdul Basit Mahmoud Abdul Karim in Kuwait, spent time at an Al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, before beginning in 1991 to plan a bombing attack within the United States. Yousef's uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Ali Fadden, who later was considered the principal architect of the September 11 attacks, gave him advice and tips over the phone, and funded his co-conspirator Mohammed Salameh with a US$660 wire transfer.